1 – Players taken from St. Catharines of the Golden Horseshoe Junior B League of the Ontario Hockey Association – a league that had never had a player picked in the NHL Entry Draft. Daultan Leveille, a 5-11, 163-pound speedster, was chosen at No. 29 by the Atlanta Thrashers after scoring 29 goals in 45 games. He's headed for Michigan State.

2 – Goaltenders taken in the first round. Nashville chose Chet Pickard of the WHL's Tri-City Americans at No. 19 and Detroit used the final pick of the first round, No. 30 overall, to select Thomas McCollum of the OHL's Guelph Storm. A total of 23 goaltenders went in the seven rounds.

3 – Draft position of Zach Bogosian, the first American-born skater taken. He was selected by the Atlanta Thrashers. That's a change from last year, when Americans were taken with the first two picks. Bogosian was the first of six Americans taken in the opening round; overall, 46 U.S.-born players were selected.

4 – Staal brothers taken in the NHL Draft after Jared was chosen at No. 49 by the Phoenix Coyotes. He was the only one of the four who wasn't taken in the first round. Eric (2002) and Jordan (2006) went No. 2 overall, while Mark (2005) was chosen at No. 11.

9 – Russian players chosen in the Draft. Two Russians, Nikita Filatov (No. 6 to Columbus) and Viktor Tikhonov (No. 28 to Phoenix) were taken
in the first round.

10 – Defensemen taken among the first 20 picks in the Draft including a run of four straight blueliners after the Tampa Bay Lightning chose Sarnia center Steve Stamkos with the No. 1 overall pick. In all, 78 of the 211 players taken this year were defensemen.

12 – Countries that had at least one player selected. France, Germany and Belarus had one each; Demark and Switzerland were next-lowest with two.

13 – Trades completed during the opening round of the Draft. The deals involved seven players (three in a deal between Phoenix and Florida), as well as 20 first-round picks (some were moved more than once) and 15 picks in other rounds or next year.

13 – Players chosen by the New York Islanders, who wound up with more picks than anyone else (Anaheim was next with 10). The Islanders had onepick in the first round and three each in the second and third. In all, seven of the first 73 selections were made by the Isles.

17 – Swedish-born players taken in the Draft, the most of any non-North American country and the same number as last year. Two Swedes – defenseman Erik Karlsson (No. 15 to Nashville) and forward Anton Gustafsson(No. 21 to Washington) went in the first round.

18 – Canadians taken in the opening round, including the first five overall picks. All told, 119 Canadians were selected, by far the most of any country (the U.S. was next at 46) and the most since 2004, when 125 players born in Canada were chosen.

46 – Players taken from the Ontario Hockey League, by far the most of the three Canadian junior leagues. That's up from 35 last year and the most taken from any junior league since 1999, when 52 of the 272 players selected came from the OHL. In all, 21.9 percent of all players taken came from the Ontario League, the highest percentage from one league since 1997, when the Western Hockey League produced 25.6 of all players chosen.

62 – The first pick by San Jose. The Sharks still wound up with seven picks, and used the first and last (No. 194 overall) to take twins Justin and Drew Daniels, a pair of U.S. high school players.

64 – Centers chosen, more than the combined total of left wings (22) and right wings (18) selected in the Draft, including No. 1 overall pick Steve Stamkos by Tampa Bay.

211 – Draft pick used by Detroit to take Swedish center Jesper Samuelsson with the final pick of the Draft. It's not impossible, or even improbable, that Samuelsson could make the NHL: Several last picks have played at least one game, Minnesota defenseman Kim Johnsson, taken with the final selection by the Rangers in 1994, has played more than 500 – and Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson, picked 291st and last by the Wings in 2002, has already played eight NHL games and could become a regular next season.